


A Woman's Pain

by KeganHorse



Series: Give Me Love or Give Me Death [2]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Epilogue, F/M, Post-Canon Fix-It, episode 8x04 reation fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 02:39:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18730063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeganHorse/pseuds/KeganHorse
Summary: The last war has been won, and Brienne of Tarth forges a new path as both a woman and a knight.





	A Woman's Pain

**Author's Note:**

> I was still inspired after writing Anywhere, Anywhere, so I turned my attention to the other beautiful couple in need of a happy ending.

Brienne was frightened. More afraid than she had ever been before as she stared down the women at the foot of her bed, fussing around her while somehow also managing to pay her no mind. She glanced at the door, still shut firmly with no hint of sound outside them.

"Where is Lady Sansa?" Brienne gasped, her voice weak and full of panic.

"Some riders have arrived from King's Landing," the older of the two women announced, lifting Brienne at the shoulders and stuffing even more pillows beneath her back. "I hear the lady Arya is with them."

Brienne let out a loud whine, pain and terror mixing. As much as she wanted Sansa there, she couldn't ask her Lady to forego a reunion with her wayward sister. Not when she had been so worried all this time.

"Lay back, Ser Brienne," the younger woman coaxed, easing her down onto the mountain of pillows. "It's almost time."

But her anxiety would not ease. To tell the truth, it began the night Jaime left her, crying and begging in the Winterfell Courtyard. And it had only grown from there. It rose with each new report they received from the army, when news came through that Daenerys had been killed, and finally when they heard that Jaime had murdered his sister and survived, but had soon after gone missing with his brother Tyrion.

She had thought at the time things couldn't get worse. Not when the man you loved up and left you for his sister. Not when said man disappeared off the face of the planet after killing said sister. 

But then, three months after the Battle for Winterfell, Brienne had fallen ill. She had been convinced she was dying, unable to keep down any food or liquid. She thought she would die of a broken heart and the inability to sustain herself.

Then Maester Wolkan had told her she was pregnant, and she was forced to relive all that had happened while explaining herself to Lady Sansa.

The pain flared up again, a woman's pain she thought with disgust and anger, grabbing the closest thing she could and throwing it hard at the door. The goblet thumped against the heavy wood and fell to the bearskin rug beneath it with an unsatisfyingly quiet thud. She screamed.

The pain wasn't stopping and through her haze she could see the two midwives between her legs, prying them apart and having a rather hard time of it. She heard them yelling for her to push, so she did. She heard their encouragements without knowing the words. And she heard Lady Sansa yelling outside in the hallway.

"My child," She thought she heard through the door, but her mind wasn't really focused on the meaning. "Not your wife," she heard her Lady respond angrily. Her midwives paid the disturbance no mind and they urged her to push harder. With a final scream, she watched as the women pulled away from her, baby in hand, and heard it give a strong little cry of its own.

They quickly wiped the child down and wrapped it in furs before handing it to and exhausted Brienne. It was still crying, but Brienne couldn't help but marvel at it. So tiny, so beautiful, so blonde.

Before the midwives had finished cleaning up, the door burst open. Brienne had almost forgotten the voices she had heard.

"Brienne," Jaime's voice was rough, his eyes wide and his hair mussed. Lady Sansa stood behind him in the doorway, looking angrier than Brienne had seen her in quite some time.

"This is very inappropriate, Lord Jaime," Sansa berated him. "Have you no honor at all? Lady Brienne needs some privacy-"

"Ser Brienne," Jaime corrected her, not taking his eyes off the child in Brienne's arms. He quickly stepped to kneel at her bedside, his good hand hovering where he had almost reached out but stopped himself. He withdrew it quickly, his eyes locking with Brienne's in a silent plea.

"Brienne?" Lady Sansa asked, for even with all her yelling and anger at Jaime, she still knew how much it would mean to Brienne that he came back.

"Please, just give us a moment," Brienne croaked out, her throat sore from the screaming.

Sansa nodded and retreated along with the midwives, shutting the door behind her with one last meaningful look at her sworn sword and friend.

Jaime sat there in silence for much more than a moment, but Brienne just watched him. She would not be the one to speak first, not after what he had done to her.

"I can't say sorry," Jaime finally said, his hand long since having reached out to rub his fingers against his child's cheek. "For leaving. I had to."

Brienne wanted to be angry. She wanted to say nothing at all, to deny him any form of understanding or forgiveness. But she couldn't, not to Jaime, and the impulse to hurt him died as quickly as it had come.

"I know."

Jaime looked at her, his eyes wide and filling with tears as his lips began to tremble. "I killed her."

"I know."

Jaime huffed out a laugh at this, his eyes back on their child, now quiet and sleeping. The tears fell silently down his cheeks.

"We always swore we would die together, just as we were born together. Whenever someone asked me before battle how I wished to die, I would always say in the arms of the woman I loved, and I would think of her."

Brienne wondered how much more pain she would be forced to endure today. He locked his gaze with hers and she could see the fire growing within him.

"And then I killed her, and as I thought about dying with her then and there, I could only think of you."

She felt her shoulders tense, her throat seize up and cursed herself for the ugly crier that she was, because there was no way she wasn't going to cry now.

"I didn't want to leave you Brienne," Jaime was whispering now, almost too quiet for Brienne to hear. "You've made me so much more than a Lannister or a Lion or a Kingslayer. But I knew, I couldn't just run away from those parts of me either. I had to reconcile them. I had to deal with her."

The child in her arms began to stir, it's little arms reaching up towards the ceiling. Jaime was looking at it now, eyes full of wonder and what was unmistakably love. 

Brienne smiled. She knew Jaime, more than she knew anyone else in this world. And she loved him as he was, Kingslayer and Oathkeeper together. That was good enough for her.

"Would you like to hold your daughter?"


End file.
